The Apostle Paul's statement about spiritual love, "Charity never faileth," I Cor. 13:8. was then and is still today an unparalleled challenge. Fear and hate, suffering of all kinds, make the unfailing quality of this love seem downright Utopian. Paul, however, was not a Utopian but a Christian. He himself had undergone the transformation from being a persecutor to a follower of Christ. The book of Acts tells us of his spiritual rebirth outside and in Damascus. Referring to this, he identified himself as "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father. . .)." Gal. 1:1.
How, then, are we to understand his statement that love never ceases? Does Paul's life show us an example of the ceaseless, saving presence of this love? Perhaps not, when seen on the surface. Long is the list of his hardships, which frequently put him in desperate situations: five times he received thirty-nine lashes; three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned; three times he suffered shipwreck. And he faced numerous other sources of danger. See II Cor. 11:23-26.
All this could make one ask, Is there any point at all to getting involved with Christianity, since Christ Jesus, who brought it to earth, was crucified, and things apparently didn't end much better for some of his followers? What's the sense of it, if striving to be a Christian brings so little advantage to our lives—indeed, on the contrary, seems to cause suffering?
